Stage 1 - June 20: St Paul Criterium, 60 mins

Stevic and Cheatley take early lead

The 2007 Nature Valley Grand Prix kicked off with a blazing fast criterium,
a change from last year's individual time trial opener. Toyota-Untied stretched
its legs in the last four laps of the 60 minute timed event and brought Serbian
national champion Ivan Stevic to another career win. Stevic has become known
for his uphill sprint finishes, but his victory didn't come with out a fight
from second place Kirk O'Bee (Health Net) and the third placed local hero Jonathan
Page (Nature Valley).

Though Stevic crashed at the race's midway he it clearly had no barring on
his performance during the final laps. "I crashed half way to go and I'm starting
to feel the pain now," Stevic said after his podium appearance. "But I will
find out tomorrow how I'm really feeling - nothing a beer won't cure."

The brand new course offered a little for everyone, with a gradual incline
on the last half, through the start/finish and a shallow gradient around the
backside of the course. Its L-shape became technical due to the large numbers
in this year's peloton, but after several attacks the high speeds kept the race
safe. "The course was not that bad, it was a big field and a lot of guys with
some who didn't seem to know what they were doing," said Stevic. "There was
bumpy pavement on the long straight before the last corner and it was still
going up to the finish line. That was the hardest part but I like an uphill
finish so it was perfect for me."

Many attacks came out of the field and several disorganized breakaways slipped
off the front only to come back seconds later to an active field. It was quickly
apparent that no break would succeed to the finish and Toyota-United rallied
at front to shut out any chance of a last lap flyer. "The guys took control
with four laps to go to start a lead out for me and it was easy from there,"
Stevic said, admitting his team played on the circuit's technical attributes.
"Basically it was too hard to move around on this kind of course so we did a
perfect job being at the front first."

While realizing that there are many difficult stages approaching, Stevic said
he would love to hold onto the leader's jersey through to criterium in Stillwater.
"It was one of our plans to have me in the leader's jersey and we will see how
it goes from one day to the next," he said. "We have a strong team and we plan
on keeping the jersey. We also have more than one card to play."

The women's race proved to be a tactical affair, after a break of eight riders
separated from the field after the Queen of the Mountain hot spot, 35 minutes
into the 65 minute event. The break was bound tight and determined to make it
to the finish line ahead of the field but wound up chasing one escapee, Cheerwine's
Catherine Cheatley. The New Zealand rider attacked the break on the last lap
to solo into a stage victory and the early leader's jersey. Local heros Shelley
Olds (ProMan) and Theresa Moriarty (Flanders) gave the crowd something to cheer
about, taking second and third places respectively.

"I really enjoyed it. It was really fast," said Cheatley. "We were lucky. We
had two riders in the break and one of the strongest riders in the field."

The first half of the race was marred with several crashes on the second to
last corner. The crashes were generally caused by the field coming through a
little too fast out desperation to hang on to TEAm Lipton's strength at the
front of the field.

Several attacks broke loose and came back, but only an attack by world time
trial champion Kristin Armstrong (Lipton) was strong enough to snap away from
field. Armstrong made her move after an intermediate sprint after the half way
point. Seven other riders followed Armstrong's lead, including Canadian time
trial and road champion Alex Wrubleski (Colavita/Sutter Home) Stacey Marple
(Tibco), Felicia Gomez (Aarons) Leigh Hobson and her teammate/stage winner Cheatley
along with Olds and Moriarty who round out the podium.

"When I looked at the [breakaway] group it was to my advantage to really work,"
said Armstrong. "I wasn't really concerned with finishing in the top three,
just because I knew that in the group there were a bunch of sprinters."

Leigh Hobson commented on the efforts of the riders in the break that helped
them secure the gap to the finish. "It was started by Kristin Armstrong and
her along with Alex drove it until the gap was big enough," Hobson admitted.
"After the gap started growing, people became committed and others started working
too."

One team not present in the break was Webcor Builders, which found itself in
a mad chase to reduce the time gap before the finish. Webcor's Rachael Heal
commented on the squad's absence in the break as being a case of underestimating
the likely hood of a break succeeding. "We missed the break which was not ideal
but on a race like this we didn't panic right away because ewe though it would
come back," Heal said. "But after a few laps we realized it was going to stay
away. It was a race that was hard to move up because it would string out and
bunch in the corners."

Webcor Builders gathered more and more of its riders to help in the chase,
but that was not enough to bring them back before the end. "There were individual
riders who would help a little and we thought the gap was being reduced but
with one lap to go it was up to 25 seconds," continued Heal. "Lipton was patrolling
the bunch to make sure none of us actually got away. But, none of us felt like
we had the legs to try to bridge today."

Cheatley attacked on the last lap while almost simultaneously Wrubleski crashed
on the second to last corner.